


hooked

by thesilverdoe_1



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Apartment sharing, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Sea of Thieves, keith plays video games, self indulgent keith carrying shiro because he strONK, some very light nsfw mentions/hints, terrible pirate puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 22:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesilverdoe_1/pseuds/thesilverdoe_1
Summary: When Keith gets really into a new video game, Shiro tries to convince himself he can handle Keith’s temporary emotional absence.It’s not that he’s feeling insecure about their relationship — Shiro has to remind himself — he just hasn’t expected anything to steal Keith’s attention away this drastically after thoseHorizon Zero DawnandBreath of the Wilddays were over. So no. Shiro’s not insecure about this. It’s just been a while since he’s lost Keith to the virtual world.





	hooked

**Author's Note:**

> so a few weeks ago, my husband got REALLY into _Sea of Thieves_. since then, this fic idea has been haunting me so i finally just sat down and wrote it! :D i sincerely apologize in advance. hope you all enjoy, lmao.

Ever since Keith started playing  _ Sea of Thieves,  _ Shiro has been seeing a lot less of his boyfriend lately.

Of course, he still  _ sees _ Keith all the time — they live together, after all — but their time spent together has been toeing the fine line between quality time and quantity time. Even though the game had only come out a week ago, it feels like it’s been more than a month since they’ve talked. Indeed, throughout the past few days, Keith has been spending the majority of his nights after work glued to the computer screen, shouting nautical commands like  _ raise the sails, raise the sails! _ and bursting into sporadic bouts of laughter out of nowhere while Shiro sits idly by on the couch with a book in his lap.

It’s endearing, really. Really, it is. What with the adorable, smug smirk, the smooth tick of his eyebrows, and his whoop of victory every time they sink an enemy’s ship, seeing him enjoy himself so much really fills Shiro’s heart with so much warmth. While most couples would grow in bitterness or resentment about not spending as much time together as usual, Shiro knows he and Keith are both secure enough in their relationship to not let such minor dips in the amount of quality time they have to affect their love for one another.

The thought fills Shiro with a glowing sense of pride. It’s not the first time Keith’s found himself preoccupied with a video game, and Shiro’s taken his fair share of week-long business trips himself, and they’ve always been fine. They’re not like other clingy couples; they’re better than that.

And besides, it’s adorable when Keith gets really into a game. The intensity with which he approaches any and all situations is one of Shiro’s favorite things about him. There’s just something insanely attractive about the image of Keith wearing giant headphones and deftly maneuvering through a virtual world on his keyboard. The silly things he’s called out into the living room throughout  _ Sea of Thieves _ has been entertaining to listen to, and Shiro can’t help but look on with a fond smile.

…  _ However. _ After eight straight days of this, it starts getting a little less cute.

It’s a Thursday night the week after its release date when Shiro comes home late after a long day of work, tired and weary after having to deal with a series of angry clients and passive aggressive managers, and deeply, deeply hoping to be greeted perhaps by the usual warm smile from Keith and an accompanying kiss on the mouth.

Upon entering the apartment, however, the second he opens the door, he’s assaulted with the now begrudgingly familiar sound of hurdy gurdies and concertinas striking up a shanty tune.

His heart drops straight down to the floor in disappointment as the exhale from his deep groan causes his shoulders to sag.

As he takes off his shoes and closes the door behind him, he hears Keith burst out into a full blown laugh — the kind where he throws his head back and completely lets loose — and, despite Shiro’s resistance to such a negative emotion, feels a slight twinge of jealousy. He can’t remember the last time  _ he’s _ made Keith laugh that freely and loudly. With a reluctant sigh, he approaches the computer chair from behind and ruffles Keith’s hair in lieu of a proper greeting.

Keith doesn’t seem to mind or notice this less than enthusiastic show of affection. Instead, he jumps up to give him a swift kiss on the cheek and a  _ welcome home, babe _ before plopping back down and resuming his game. No  _ how was your day? _ or  _ you look stressed, is everything okay? _

And Shiro shouldn’t be annoyed by this. They may be in a relationship, but Keith’s his own man and they’re not tied at the hip. And besides, this isn’t the norm — he’s just  _ really _ into this game right now.

“Okay, enough with this!” comes Lance’s voice from the speakers. “Why the fuck are you guys doing this to me? This is injustice!”

“What’s going on?” Shiro asks, his eyes flicking to the screen. There’s a female pirate walking back and forth inside a human sized cage while three other pirates holding instruments play a song around her.

Keith gives another snort of laughter. “We just locked Lance in the brigs for the hell of it. Hunk started playing music so we all joined in.”

The female pirate — presumably Lance — continues to run at the bars, accompanied by a stream of curses from Lance himself.

“Don’t be rude, Lance,” Hunk’s voice says. “Shiro’s home.”

“Hi, Shiro!” Pidge’s voice calls out.

“Shiro! Tell your boyfriend to release me  _ this instant! _ ” Lance cries.

“Hey everyone,” Shiro replies back with a polite chuckle. Then, leaning down closer to Keith until his mouth is right as his ear, he whispers, “Should I make dinner tonight?”

“Up to you,” Keith says, his eyes still glued to the screen. “We can order take out if you’re tired.”

Shiro  _ is _ tired, but it doesn’t seem like Keith’s concern at the moment. In attempt to draw his attention away from the game for even a second, Shiro runs through several options of the restaurants nearby.

“Do you want pizza? Or maybe Thai? Or how about that Mediterranean restaurant we’ve been meaning to try?”

“You decide,” Keith tells him. Somehow Shiro has the impression he didn’t fully take in a word he just said. “I’m good with whatever you pick.”

“Well, if you’re sure.”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” Keith finally turns to him to give him a confident smile. “You know I’m not picky.”

“Shiro, you should play with us!” Hunk says while Pidge asserts her agreement in the background.

“I don’t know,” Shiro shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck. “With work being so busy, it’s been hard to start anything new recently.” And besides, they only have one PC in the house.

“Aww, come on, Shiro,” Pidge presses. “It’s a very chill game if you want it to be. Good for destressing after a long day.”

“Don’t do it, Shiro,” comes Lance’s voice. “Don’t trust these people. Especially not your boyfriend. He threw me to the sharks on our first day!”

“I wanted to see what would happen!” Keith yells back. As an aside to Shiro, he adds, “It was very funny by the way. The graphics in this game is amazing.”

“It was awful! I was scared for my life!” Lance pauses, then adds, “And they  _ did _ take my life!”

“You could’ve shot them down,” Keith points out.

Lance gasps. “You’re heartless. I can’t believe you would suggest doing that to an innocent animal!”

“They’re not real, Lance,” Keith drones as they finally let him out of the brigs.

“Heartless!” Lance repeats. “Have you  _ seen _ the streams where people actually kill a shark? It’s just so sad, seeing it just… float upside down in the water.”

“Sounds like a you problem,” Keith says.

“No, yeah…” Hunk chimes in. “You gotta admit, it does look pretty sad.”

Shiro can’t listen to this anymore. Retreating away from the computer desk, he pulls out his phone and opens up Yelp to search for the pizza place’s number. Once he’s called and ordered, he sinks into the couch and picks up his book from the coffee table. At the very least, Keith’s noticed, because he dons his headphones so that the music’s disappeared, though his shouts of random comments still punctuate the air every now and then.

“We’re clear of the rocks now, so let’s get back to attacking.”

“Umm, guys, we should probably turn starboard more… No, no, no. Let’s turn port in a little bit. Can you turn port in like, 10 degrees? We can go around.”

“Yeah, I took so many cannonballs to the face yesterday, it was unreal. Don’t drink and sail, guys.”

“Shit, they’re coming in fast — how’s the positioning?”

“Lance, do  _ not _ use nautical terms that you don’t understand.”

“Oh, god, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna get banned on Twitch now… No — no, he’s not with us. We’re not affiliated!”

“I’m gonna launch myself onto their boat without bullets. That’ll show them.”

Despite his best efforts, Shiro finds himself distracted from the book he’s trying to read. At first he convinces himself it’s just difficult to concentrate with Keith’s intermittent shouts, but the more he tries to focus, the more restless he gets, until he finds himself instead stealing glances over at Keith’s back.

If he’s honest with himself, Shiro misses Keith. Yes, they see each other everyday, yes, neither of them are the needy type, and yes, this new obsession with this game is temporary, but deep down in his heart of hearts, Shiro simply just misses Keith.

It’s not that he’s feeling insecure about their relationship — Shiro has to remind himself — he just hasn’t expected anything to steal Keith’s attention away this drastically after those  _ Horizon Zero Dawn _ and  _ Breath of the Wild _ days were over. They haven’t even had sex for an entire week — not even when Shiro casually decided to walk around shirtless one night after the gym. But no. Shiro’s not insecure about this. It’s just been a while since he’s lost Keith to the virtual world.

He doesn’t want to be that guy. He’s never been the kind of significant other that demands Keith to spend more time with him. That’s not how a relationship works.

The doorbell rings. He breathes a sigh of relief. At least Keith will have to stop for dinner.

Except — he doesn’t. The moment Shiro brings the pizza over to the dining table, after informing Keith that he ordered all his favorite toppings, Keith swoops in, grabs four slices, then slinks back to make himself at home at the computer desk.

Shiro resolves to say nothing. He’s not the controlling type. When Keith gets tired of the game, as Shiro knows he eventually will, everything will go back to normal. So he eats his dinner in silence, catches up on the news and social media, washes up, then goes to bed early.

It’s not until Keith stumbles in late that night long after Shiro’s fallen asleep, crawling in beneath the blanket to curl up into his chest, that Shiro decides perhaps he ought to give Keith a little taste of how he really feels.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, Shiro awakes before his alarm. As expected, Keith is still knocked out, his beautiful dark hair spilling onto his pillow as he breathes, quiet and slow. It’s a serene image, one that Shiro treasures as many mornings as he can, and would now if Keith hadn’t been neglecting him so much lately.

Rolling over onto his side, Shiro drapes an arm over Keith’s shoulder and rolls back, pulling Keith onto his bare chest. In the process, he makes no effort in preventing his thigh from pressing up against Keith’s crotch.

Keith mumbles himself awake.

“Hngmm? Shiro?”

“Good morning,” Shiro smiles, reaching out a hand to brush Keith’s bangs away from his face. Keith doesn’t open his eyes but nuzzles his nose into Shiro’s chest.

“Morning.” A soft utterance, his voice still laced with sleep.

“How’s my little pirate?” Shiro asks, shifting his thigh a bit until he can feel Keith hardening through his boxers.

Keith gives a little, faint shiver in response and curls in closer to his chest, incoherent mumbling spilling out of his mouth. His fingers grip Shiro’s arms tighter and he subconsciously starts to move his hips.

It’s at this point that Shiro gently pushes Keith off of him and starts to get out of bed.

“Gotta go to work,” he says as Keith lets out a frustrated groan at the loss of contact.

“Wha—?”

Once he’s on his feet, Shiro turns his head to look down at Keith, arms sprawled all over the space Shiro’s just vacated. A part of him feels a little twinge of guilt at the betrayed look on Keith’s face as he blinks fully awake and squints up at him, but the other part of him tells himself he’s justified. Keith doesn’t get to get off on Shiro, especially not while he displays the same inattentiveness that he’s been treating Shiro with for the last few days. In times like these, Keith needs to earn it.

He grabs an undershirt and throws it on while Keith scowls.

“See you later, okay?” Shiro tells him, leaning down to give him a quick kiss on the forehead.

And with that, he dons the rest of his clothes and continues on with his morning routine.

 

*

 

Later that day, instead of going straight home from work, Shiro heads to the gym. Luckily, it’s only a five minute drive from their apartment, so by the time he gets home, he’ll probably still be hot and sweaty. After doing his most basic and usual routine of ab workouts, squats, and bench pressing, he checks the clock.

By now, it’s been long enough that Keith is probably home (and on the computer), but not quite long enough yet for him to start noticing Shiro’s late, so he does a few more rounds for good measure before finally taking his leave.

He arrives home in his gym clothes and finds Keith exactly where he expected him to be.

“I’ll leave the explosive barrel at the top. No, at the top. At the crow’s nest. Just in case.”

Shiro kicks off his shoes as Keith continues his slew of pirate phrases.

“...Alright, I’m getting the last barrel right now.”

Pulling his tank top up and off his head, he tosses it in the laundry basket in the bathroom before heading out to greet Keith.

“If you blow them up from up here you don’t take damage.”

“Hey, you,” Shiro says, leaning his elbow on the back of the computer chair and ruffling Keith’s hair.

“Hey, Shiro,” Keith responds, somewhat absentmindedly, as he turns to face him. Shiro can see the exact moment Keith intended to turn back to the game, but does a double take at Shiro instead.

His mouth parts open just slightly as the cogs in his brain start visibly turning.

“Hey, guys?” Keith calls out to Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. “I need a minute.”

A chorus of protests from the three follow immediately.

“Wait, what?”

“But we’re about to attack—”

“Keith, don’t—”

Keith hits the mute button and turns his computer chair around to face Shiro.

“Okay,” he says, keeping his eyes on Shiro and his lips tight. Shiro can see him bristle with caution, as though any minute now, at the first sign of anger from Shiro, Keith will bound away at top speed into the night. “Okay. I’m gathering that I did something wrong.”

Placing his hands on either side of the armrests, Shiro leans forward over Keith. The chair tips back from the weight of Keith backing up under Shiro’s intense gaze. Behind him, Keith’s pirate character is getting attacked by a shark.

“Oh, really?” Shiro intones nonchalantly. “What tipped you off?”

Keith’s eyes make a quick sweep of Shiro’s glistening chest and dart back up to his face as he wets his lips to speak.

“A — a couple things…”

Shiro leans closer and closer until Keith starts going cross-eyed. Smirking inwardly, Shiro’s eyes pins Keith in place until he starts to close his eyes and tilt his chin up. It’s at that point where Shiro straightens back up and crosses his arms.

Keith’s eyes shoot open at that, and there’s a spark of a challenge dancing in them. With a smirk of his own, Keith stands up and rests his arms on Shiro’s shoulders, his fingers threading up the back of Shiro’s neck.

“You can play  _ Sea of Thieves _ with us too, you know,” Keith offers, stepping closer until his torso and chest are pressed snugly up against Shiro’s. “It’s a really fun game and we’d be spending plenty of quality time together. Exploring new worlds, attacking other ships. The works.”

“Hm,” Shiro gives the idea genuine thought, bringing his hands up to rest upon Keith’s waist. “Even if I did, there still remains one problem.”

“I’ll build another PC for you,” Keith says at once. “It’s not difficult and I can afford it. Anything for you.”

Shiro chuckles.

“Thank you. I appreciate the thought, and the eventual effort of building another computer, but…” Then, leaning in to whisper in Keith’s ear, he adds, “I was also referring to, you know. That  _ other _ thing.”

Tightening his grip on Shiro’s neck, Keith pulls him down into a deep, long kiss.

“You’re right,” Keith says when he breaks away, voice low and husky and full of lust. “I’ve been neglecting you.”

His hands slide down Shiro’s glistening chest and past his torso as Shiro leans in for another kiss. Keith angles his jaw upwards and their lips lock into place, Keith’s hands firm and steady as they continue to glide down the back of Shiro’s thighs. Shiro feels a gentle squeeze there, and in the next second, finds himself tipping forward onto Keith before being suddenly lifted up. With a surprised yelp, Shiro wraps himself tightly around as Keith steadies him with a palm spread out flat on his back.

It’s not news that Keith can carry all of Shiro’s weight in his arms but it never ceases to send a spicy chill down his spine, ending somewhere in a heated pool around his loins.

“Prepare to be boarded,” Keith smirks as he makes his way towards the bedroom. The minute he crosses the threshold, he dumps Shiro unceremoniously onto the bed and crawls on top of him. Shiro tries to sit up as Keith pulls his shirt off but before he can do so properly, Keith puts a hand over his chest and pushes him back down.

“So what do you say?” Keith asks, his lips hovering millimeters over Shiro’s. “Ready to set sail?”

Reaching up to grip Keith’s neck by his mullet, Shiro pulls him down into another deep kiss, unable to contain a self-satisfied smile when he feels Keith begin to rut against his stomach.

“Aye aye, Captain,” Shiro returns, his grin widening as he looks straight into Keith’s eyes. “Do your worst.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hello to me on [tumblr](https://flusteredkeith/tumblr.com) and/or [twitter](https://twitter.com/flusteredkeith)!
> 
> also: check out this hilarious art post by [jaja-han](http://jaja-han.tumblr.com/post/173044508775/flusteredkeith-pls-confirm-this-happened-in). i will neither confirm nor deny this happened sometime in the duration of this fic.


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